Women Are More Social -- When It Comes to Social Media, That Is

Women are much more likely than their male counterparts to engage in blogging, follow brands and celebrities online, and buy products online that they’ve seen featured on television, according to a new report from Nielsen.

Nielson's latest State of The Media (PDF) report shows that women are 8 percent more likely than men to create or update their own personal blog. They're also 18 percent more likely to become a fan or follow a brand on a social site such as Facebook or Twitter.

When it comes to who has at least one social networking profile up and running, the women are 6 percent more likely to have accomplished that task. Same holds for users who actively follow a celebrity online. Again, women took the lead, proving to be 15 percent more likely to follow the stars. Women were also more likely to have used the Internet to buy a product they saw on television (12 percent) than men.

So the women are the alpha players on the social media playground. The question for entrepreneurs and small-business owners who depend on social media in their marketing is: How best to take advantage? Here are some of my thoughts:

Using a celebrity to endorse your product, business or brand makes the most sense if your target audience is made up primarily of woman.

If you’re involved in the creation and marketing of blog-related software and solutions, such as widgets and plug-ins, it’s good to know that women are your target audience due to their propensity to build and be active on their personal blogs.

The fact that women maintain more social networking profiles speaks to the need for multichannel marketing campaigns when attempting to reach this audience.